Clemson Tigers College Football Pregame Quote, 12/31/2018

GINA LEHE: On behalf of the College Football Playoff, we’d like to congratulate Clemson and look forward to welcoming them to the Bay Area. At this time please welcome head coach Dabo Swinney.

DABO SWINNEY: Thank you. Well, just kind of long day yesterday and traveling back, and quickly turning the page to this incredible opportunity that we have in front of us. But first of all, I just want to say thanks to all the CFP folks. Y’all know y’all do an amazing job working all year to make this a great experience, and the Cotton Bowl was just awesome for us. Everybody associated, our players had a great time, and it was just a really, really good week.

We played a tremendous opponent in Notre Dame, and we played a heck of a ballgame. Really proud of my guys. They’ve worked their tails off all year to put themselves in this situation, so we’re excited about heading out to California later in the week.

You know, I think that this is clearly the two best teams in Alabama and Clemson, and it’s going to be an exciting game. I mean, this is the way it should be, and we know we’ve got a huge challenge. Want to congratulate Alabama, as well, for just another amazing year, and Coach Saban and what he’s done, it’s just ‚Äì they’re hard to beat.

But we’re excited about the challenge, and we’re off and running with our prep, and got a short week to kind of get ready to make the long flight out there on Friday. But we’re so thankful to have the opportunity to be a part of it.